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DITCH THE SALARY CAP!


WordsOfWisdom

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The time is right to get rid of the NHL's salary cap (or salary CRAP) as I like to call it and move to a LUXURY TAX system like Major League Baseball has.

 

It's the best of both worlds:

 

  • Poor teams can manage their budget and make a profit without having to spend UP to a cap floor that is too expensive
  • Rich teams can keep their roster together and build exciting teams while still being reigned in by the tax

 

Parity is killing the NHL. It's BORING. I'm sick and tired of every team being almost the same. I want variety. I want really good teams and I want really bad teams.

 

MLB is exciting because good teams are allowed to be great. In the NHL, no team can ever be better than good, not even the eventual Stanley Cup champions. You win the Cup more by luck than by skill these days and that's just wrong. My two cents...

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Could not have said it better myself, WOW. I hope it happens but all the NHL owners and Gary butt-man will only do what brings them more money. They don't care 2 poops about the product on the ice. Last year, an expansion franchise made it to the Stanley Cup finals!

It would be the end of teams in places where hockey is not a popular sport, and lessen the possibility of that big, lucrative national TV contract . 

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5 hours ago, WordsOfWisdom said:

The time is right to get rid of the NHL's salary cap (or salary CRAP) as I like to call it and move to a LUXURY TAX system like Major League Baseball has.

 

It's the best of both worlds:

 

  • Poor teams can manage their budget and make a profit without having to spend UP to a cap floor that is too expensive
  • Rich teams can keep their roster together and build exciting teams while still being reigned in by the tax

 

Parity is killing the NHL. It's BORING. I'm sick and tired of every team being almost the same. I want variety. I want really good teams and I want really bad teams.

 

MLB is exciting because good teams are allowed to be great. In the NHL, no team can ever be better than good, not even the eventual Stanley Cup champions. You win the Cup more by luck than by skill these days and that's just wrong. My two cents...

 

 

I completely disagree.

 

Parity has strengthened the NHL with record breaking TV contracts and with all-time high revenues.  I completely enjoy being able to flip on any game and watching talent and exciting games.

 

Money should never buy championships.  I've despised the Yankees and the Cowbows my whole life.  

 

Let the difference in great teams be those that invest in great management, scouting, and great coaching.   

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We've seen great teams dismantled because the salary cap required it, and we've seen great teams dismantled because rich teams could pick the bones of poor ones. Was that really any better than this, because for my part, I'm not really itching to model a system where the top payroll is $209M and the lowest is $21M.

 

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8 hours ago, WordsOfWisdom said:

The time is right to get rid of the NHL's salary cap (or salary CRAP) as I like to call it and move to a LUXURY TAX system like Major League Baseball has.

 

It's the best of both worlds:

 

  • Poor teams can manage their budget and make a profit without having to spend UP to a cap floor that is too expensive
  • Rich teams can keep their roster together and build exciting teams while still being reigned in by the tax

 

Parity is killing the NHL. It's BORING. I'm sick and tired of every team being almost the same. I want variety. I want really good teams and I want really bad teams.

 

MLB is exciting because good teams are allowed to be great. In the NHL, no team can ever be better than good, not even the eventual Stanley Cup champions. You win the Cup more by luck than by skill these days and that's just wrong. My two cents...

No, no it isn't.

 

Of Course a Leafs fan would be itching for the Salary cap to go away. The leafs were generally paying the 2nd or 3rd highest amounts of Salary to players BEFORE the cap came into play. NYR and Detroit were the other two.

 

A league with no cap means a league where teams can barely ever get out of the basement because they will be on budget restrictions and will lose EVERY SINGLE TOP PLAYER to a team willing to pay. It runs contrary to what the NHL has been trying to do and it will not be going away.

 

I'm sorry, but the days of seeing Bill Guerin and Bobby Holik get 9 million dollars a year because a team decided to throw 9x5year contracts at another teams UFA's are days I am not sorry to see gone. I like seeing teams suffer from the effects of signing a bad 7 year contract and have to juggle them to other teams by paying the other team to take the contracts.

 

The days of small market teams like the Penguins having to GIVE MARIO LEMIEUX OWNERSHIP of the team because they had to let Jagr and every other decent player on the team walk and owed Mario so much salary they could not pay him are over.

 

No team can ever be better than good? That's why we have 3 teams that have won 8 of the last 10 cups by juggling teams around their core players?

 

As a Leafs fan, you see the cap crunch successful teams like Chicago, Pittsburgh and LA have had to deal with by building around key players and having a revolving door of roleplayers and you see that crunch coming up, so you want to bypass it. Not going to happen.

 

 

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4 hours ago, BluPuk said:

Could not have said it better myself, WOW. I hope it happens but all the NHL owners and Gary butt-man will only do what brings them more money. They don't care 2 poops about the product on the ice. Last year, an expansion franchise made it to the Stanley Cup finals!

 

The current system only "works" (and I use the word "works" in quotes on purpose) because the RICH teams in the NHL are funding the success of teams like the Golden Knights. As a paying fan in Toronto, I want my dollars going to the Leafs roster, not to the Golden Knights. A successful Knights team does nothing for me. I want the home team to be successful. 

 

Why do people think the current salary cap system is in any way a fair or reasonable system?  Fair for who? It's a welfare system that punishes successful (ie: profitable) franchises by forcing the (balance sheet) winners to prop up the red ink losers who are a drain on the NHL's economic system. We are funding teams in locations where there is little to no fan interest on the backs of fans who are being gouged in locations like Toronto, Montreal, New York, Boston, etc....... 

 

Sorry but I don't believe fans in Toronto paying $400 a ticket should be seeing the same product that fans in Vegas paying $10 a ticket (or whatever they pay) get to see. 

 

 

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15 minutes ago, J0e Th0rnton said:

As a Leafs fan, you see the cap crunch successful teams like Chicago, Pittsburgh and LA have had to deal with by building around key players and having a revolving door of roleplayers and you see that crunch coming up, so you want to bypass it. Not going to happen.

 

Of course. My motivations are Toronto-driven.  ☺️

 

I want to see the Leafs keep everyone they have up front and shore up any weaknesses on defence.  I want Toronto to win the next four Stanley Cups like what Edmonton did in the 80's and what Montreal did in the 70's. 

 

The NHL needs teams that other teams can hate. ie: Yankees.  It makes things more interesting. The NHL needs underdogs and top-dogs. When everyone is the same (clumped somewhere in the middle), the league loses some of its intrigue. You don't get up for any one particular team coming to town because there's no difference between them. 

 

I can remember the times where you circled certain dates on your calendar.  ie: Red Wings: 120+ points with Yzerman, Fedorov, and co. come to town on day xx. You truly cared about those games as a fan. 

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As a mostly 'small market' team supporter, I tend to like having the salary cap.

Of course, I realize that whether a fan likes the cap or not would depend on their market size.
Whether it's hockey or baseball, I think the big money club fans would, of course, rather be able to spend whatever they wanted on players, while the smaller market clubs' fans would like the chance to have a star player or three on their teams to be able to compete with the "big boys".

I am not surprised that a Toronto fan would want the cap eliminated. Totally understandable.
But from a competitive standpoint, I think the cap does its job pretty well.

I'm not so sure a "luxury tax" is much of a deterrent to big money clubs. In baseball, clubs like the Yankees, Dodgers, and Red Sox go over it all the time...despite them saying they'd like to keep things under.

 

I think NHL owners would be the same way.....or worse, since NHL ownership and management can't seem to control themselves with the contracts they hand out as evidenced by the many work stoppages the NHL has been through already, they would absolutely blow up the NHL and possibly ruin it for good by turning it into the NB freakin A.

Really good teams and really bad teams? Not for me, thanks.
That's exactly how pro basketball is set up, and it is one of the many reasons couldn't give two hoots about their sport....very predicatable with the same ol teams always in positions to win titles, with the occasional Cinderella team somehow squeaking through...

I like the NHL parity as well.
Then again, while I support whole heartedly the Tampa Bay Lightning and Minnesota Wild, I fancy myself a TRUE overall NHL fan and can be found enjoying many other teams' games, even becoming a pseudo fan of a given team (if only for a short while), because I am sure to find some exciting storyline going on and the outcome of winning and losing hardly ever predictable.

 

I STILL think great teams can be great....only with a salary cap, it goes beyond just stacking the lineup with All Stars.
In the NHL, to be truly great, in addition to having the better players, you need to have smart management, savvy scouts, and a plan and vision in place to keep a team competitive for years to come based on rising and declining players and what you pay those players to be part of your core.
I've come to truly appreciate the job that some GMs have done in this way. It is an art in and of itself!

I think what the NHL needs is a steady cap number....one that is high enough for big money clubs to spend, but not so high that lesser revenue clubs can't compete.
We currently have what...a 78 mil cap?
I think we are approaching that number.  Maybe something between $80M-$85M would be the sweet spot.

I mean, if a GM can't ice a competitive hockey club given 80-85M a year, then he must not be much of a GM....because if handing out big contracts is all it ever takes to be considered a "top GM", then sign me up because I can spend money with the best of them.... just ask my husband!  :lol:

Seriously though, I am FOR the cap. I think league parity is important in ANY sport....I mean, why have franchises around if they are going to be perennial "losers"??

Again, I can certainly see the point of view from big market club fans, but for the sake of the sport...EVERY team should be able to ice a competitive hockey club.
And if GM's find themselves 'hamstrung' by certain contracts, then maybe it was their own fault for not having the vision to look beyond the next year or three for being able to have enough money to pay good players to stay on board.
 

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25 minutes ago, J0e Th0rnton said:

Of Course a Leafs fan would be itching for the Salary cap to go away. The leafs were generally paying the 2nd or 3rd highest amounts of Salary to players BEFORE the cap came into play. NYR and Detroit were the other two.

 

A league with no cap means a league where teams can barely ever get out of the basement because they will be on budget restrictions and will lose EVERY SINGLE TOP PLAYER to a team willing to pay. It runs contrary to what the NHL has been trying to do and it will not be going away.

 

Remember though, the NHL had a "free market" system before, not a luxury tax system like MLB. Despite Toronto's spending, they didn't typically win. The same rules apply: you have to manage the team wisely.

 

A luxury tax system would implement SOME control over how much teams can spend because the tax can get steep. It's a flexible system that you can tinker with until you get it right.

 

The current system requires teams like Toronto to fund teams like Carolina so they afford to get to the salary floor. If they can't afford the floor, they shouldn't be forced to spend up to it.  :)

 

 

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2 minutes ago, WordsOfWisdom said:

 

Remember though, the NHL had a "free market" system before, not a luxury tax system like MLB. Despite Toronto's spending, they didn't typically win. The same rules apply: you have to manage the team wisely.

 

A luxury tax system would implement SOME control over how much teams can spend because the tax can get steep. It's a flexible system that you can tinker with until you get it right.

 

The current system requires teams like Toronto to fund teams like Carolina so they afford to get to the salary floor. If they can't afford the floor, they shouldn't be forced to spend up to it.  :)

 

 

You are not going to convince me. Quite frankly, my team is in a bad cap situation going into next year and I STILL do not want what you want.

 

I know how the luxury tax system works and I do not think it matters to the teams with the deepest pockets willing to spend.

 

Frig that.

 

Nope, I support the salary cap.

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If you ever want to create fan apathy outside of the big media markets, re-introduce a system which turns the small markets into little more than farm teams for the apex predators at the top of the food chain.

 

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5 minutes ago, J0e Th0rnton said:

You are not going to convince me. Quite frankly, my team is in a bad cap situation going into next year and I STILL do not want what you want.

 

I know how the luxury tax system works and I do not think it matters to the teams with the deepest pockets willing to spend.

 

Frig that.

 

Nope, I support the salary cap.

 

Hell. My team has somehow managed to simultaneously suck and blow, as far as the cap is concerned, but I don't think it should go anywhere. Besides, salary cap or not, some markets have massive advantages and others suffer hardships, even with wealthy owners. We can't equalize things, but we shouldn't return to the days when a few teams are allowed to funnel talent towards their team at zero the development costs.

 

As it pertains to Toronto, it's their own fault. They wanted their shiny new centre, complete with pictures of him in his Leafs jammies as a kid, and now they have him. It's not anybody else's fault they didn't tend to their RFAs first.

 

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43 minutes ago, WordsOfWisdom said:

 

The NHL needs teams that other teams can hate. ie: Yankees.  It makes things more interesting. The NHL needs underdogs and top-dogs. When everyone is the same (clumped somewhere in the middle), the league loses some of its intrigue. You don't get up for any one particular team coming to town because there's no difference between them. 

 

 

Rivalries are on the teams and their management to build up. Australia's AFL has fierce rivalries while still having the cup as rivalries are based on events.

 

I'll give an example. Port Adelaide (my team) and Collingwood despise each other. When entering the AFL after over a century of success in state football, Collingwood vetoed their entry until they changed their colours and guernsey because they didn't want another team with vertical black and white stripes. In the run up to one game between the two, the Collingwood coach made a statement that the SANFL jersey shouldn't be worn by Port Adelaide in heritage round even if they aren't playing Collingwood. This drove people to the game in a year they were seeing terrible attendance. 

 

The cross town derbies have their own trophies to give them meaning, and there are matchups that get people excited because of history (ie Collingwood-Carlton) even when one of the teams is total rubbish. Port Adelaide has fostered an ongoing rivalry with Fremantle for no other reason than both teams being from a port. It's little to hang your hat on but it works.

 

A lot of this has to do with the sheer numbers of games played in the NHL, though. AFL coaches have a week to build up hype, NHL coaches have at best a few days, and the volume of games played makes it much harder to make any one special. 

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1 hour ago, JR Ewing said:

 

Hell. My team has somehow managed to simultaneously suck and blow, as far as the cap is concerned, but I don't think it should go anywhere. Besides, salary cap or not, some markets have massive advantages and others suffer hardships, even with wealthy owners. We can't equalize things, but we shouldn't return to the days when a few teams are allowed to funnel talent towards their team at zero the development costs.

 

As it pertains to Toronto, it's their own fault. They wanted their shiny new centre, complete with pictures of him in his Leafs jammies as a kid, and now they have him. It's not anybody else's fault they didn't tend to their RFAs first.

 

This. Leaf fans want all the benefits of signing a superstar player at elevated cost via UFA and none of the downsides. The downside is it forces hard choices later.

 

If Matthews and Marner decide to hardball and want huge contracts, that's on Management for not locking them up quicker. Nylander himself is playing hardball forcing them to give him more money than they want.

 

Shanahan's laughable speech on "When in Detroit, it is not the money we took, but the memories of winning" was so stupid I cackled. Shanahan was a mercenary, signing with the highest bidder who got lucky and landed in Detroit, who had the 2nd deepest pockets among owners and were willing to pay his high fees to keep him. Now he is asking the next generation to not be greedy?

 

Shanahan probably regretted making it when about a million tweets went up about him abandoning his original team NJD to sign with the Blues as an RFA, which since the Blues had already given up 5 first round picks by stealing Scott Stevens with an RFA contract, made them incapable of giving the 4 first round draft picks to NJD as compensation and the arbitrator forced them to Send Scott Stevens to NJ.

 

Yeah no Thanks. I don't want to see teams trying to buy a cup anymore. The blues trying to buy talent was the factor that forced the first lockout as Stevens becoming the highest paid Dman in the league, yet maybe 5th best made everyone want more money.

 

Back then Players under contract could just hold out and demand more money despite their existing contract.

 

Remember Yashin deciding he would just stay home the final year of his contract to shop himself to the highest bidder? But then the NHL ruled he owed them a year of service so he came in and sulked an entire year playing until they traded him and then he signed that abomination of a contract.

 

Remember Messier winning the cup in NYR and then asking them to tear up his contract and give him one double the size and long term? or he would not play?

 

I sure don't miss hearing about players holding out DURING their contracts until they get bigger ones. Thank you CBA!

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3 hours ago, WordsOfWisdom said:

 

The current system only "works" (and I use the word "works" in quotes on purpose) because the RICH teams in the NHL are funding the success of teams like the Golden Knights. As a paying fan in Toronto, I want my dollars going to the Leafs roster, not to the Golden Knights. A successful Knights team does nothing for me. I want the home team to be successful. 

 

Why do people think the current salary cap system is in any way a fair or reasonable system?  Fair for who? It's a welfare system that punishes successful (ie: profitable) franchises by forcing the (balance sheet) winners to prop up the red ink losers who are a drain on the NHL's economic system. We are funding teams in locations where there is little to no fan interest on the backs of fans who are being gouged in locations like Toronto, Montreal, New York, Boston, etc....... 

 

Sorry but I don't believe fans in Toronto paying $400 a ticket should be seeing the same product that fans in Vegas paying $10 a ticket (or whatever they pay) get to see.

 

You may want to check your facts. The cheapest available first-sale tickets for Anaheim vs. VGK on Saturday are $92 with the top price of $750.

 

If Rogers/BCE, Comcast, MSG, etc. DIDN'T want a salary cap and thought it was "unfair," they sure picked a weird way to show it.

 

The owners - including the ones of the big market teams - FORCED the salary cap upon the league. You may remember a year and a half of hockey lost because the OWNERS demanded it. These are the same owners who just split up $800M from the Vegas Golden Knights as well. That's $800M that the Knights paid for the privilege of playing in the league IN ADDITION to their operating salary.

 

Lastly, the salary cap and revenue sharing is among the only thing allowing NHL hockey to remain in such woebegone places as Calgary, Edmonton, and Winnipeg. And hockey in such ridiculous places as Arizona and Miami are contributing to the national TV contract that the teams all split as well.

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1 hour ago, J0e Th0rnton said:

This. Leaf fans want all the benefits of signing a superstar player at elevated cost via UFA and none of the downsides. The downside is it forces hard choices later.

 

Yes, because that's how it works in other professional sports leagues. (That's my story and I'm sticking to it here since I'm outnumbered lol.)  :) 

 

I hate referring to the Yankees but they're an example of a team that can afford to sign a star player in the off-season without giving anyone up on their current roster. The ability to add talent to an NHL team without being forced to lose an equivalent amount of talent in return has seemingly been lost. Why can't teams simply be allowed to improve their roster without compromise (other than money)? 

 

If you have the right mix of guys, what's so wrong with "loading up" for a Cup run?  Why do successful teams have to watch their best players leave every year due to cap reasons? Teams should be able to retain all of their best players. You should be able to keep every player you have until you feel like getting rid of them. 

 

Why do teams have to suffer through 20 years of mediocrity to get a 5-year window in which they can enjoy success? (Since that's the only way you can make the contracts work under the cap system before everyone leaves.)

 

Let's talk luxury tax system.... If it's done right, it would allow teams like the Leafs to spend more yes, but it would still prevent unlimited spending. 

 

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2 hours ago, J0e Th0rnton said:

Back then Players under contract could just hold out and demand more money despite their existing contract.

 

Remember Yashin deciding he would just stay home the final year of his contract to shop himself to the highest bidder? But then the NHL ruled he owed them a year of service so he came in and sulked an entire year playing until they traded him and then he signed that abomination of a contract.

 

Players would be forced to honor their contracts.  That's a simple tweak to the CBA if need be. 

 

If you get into a situation like the Yashin one, you could improvize:  Force the team that gets Yashin to pay his full value to obtain him. ie: A third party would analyze what Yashin is worth as a player and whoever acquires him would be forced to pay Ottawa that amount to obtain him. That prevents teams from being hurt by sulking players who have no trade value. 

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4 hours ago, JR Ewing said:

If you ever want to create fan apathy outside of the big media markets, re-introduce a system which turns the small markets into little more than farm teams for the apex predators at the top of the food chain.

 

 

But look back at history for a moment......  Even when the NHL had a completely free market system (no restrictions on spending at all), the most successful teams were:

 

  • Edmonton
  • Calgary
  • Montreal
  • Vancouver
  • New York
  • Dallas
  • Colorado
  • Detroit
  • Pittsburgh
  • Boston
  • St. Louis
  • etc..

It was a mix of big and small market teams. You can't even really include Toronto on the list. Toronto spent money, but they hardly enjoyed any success. 

 

 

 

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41 minutes ago, WordsOfWisdom said:

 

Yes, because that's how it works in other professional sports leagues. (That's my story and I'm sticking to it here since I'm outnumbered lol.)  :) 

 

I hate referring to the Yankees but they're an example of a team that can afford to sign a star player in the off-season without giving anyone up on their current roster. The ability to add talent to an NHL team without being forced to lose an equivalent amount of talent in return has seemingly been lost. Why can't teams simply be allowed to improve their roster without compromise (other than money)? 

 

If you have the right mix of guys, what's so wrong with "loading up" for a Cup run?  Why do successful teams have to watch their best players leave every year due to cap reasons? Teams should be able to retain all of their best players. You should be able to keep every player you have until you feel like getting rid of them. 

 

Why do teams have to suffer through 20 years of mediocrity to get a 5-year window in which they can enjoy success? (Since that's the only way you can make the contracts work under the cap system before everyone leaves.)

 

Let's talk luxury tax system.... If it's done right, it would allow teams like the Leafs to spend more yes, but it would still prevent unlimited spending. 

 

 

42 minutes ago, WordsOfWisdom said:

 

Yes, because that's how it works in other professional sports leagues. (That's my story and I'm sticking to it here since I'm outnumbered lol.)  :) 

 

I hate referring to the Yankees but they're an example of a team that can afford to sign a star player in the off-season without giving anyone up on their current roster. The ability to add talent to an NHL team without being forced to lose an equivalent amount of talent in return has seemingly been lost. Why can't teams simply be allowed to improve their roster without compromise (other than money)? 

 

If you have the right mix of guys, what's so wrong with "loading up" for a Cup run?  Why do successful teams have to watch their best players leave every year due to cap reasons? Teams should be able to retain all of their best players. You should be able to keep every player you have until you feel like getting rid of them. 

 

Why do teams have to suffer through 20 years of mediocrity to get a 5-year window in which they can enjoy success? (Since that's the only way you can make the contracts work under the cap system before everyone leaves.)

 

Let's talk luxury tax system.... If it's done right, it would allow teams like the Leafs to spend more yes, but it would still prevent unlimited spending. 

 

And no. The league is dead set on keeping the salary cap and I fully support it. So do the networks broadcasting the games. So do all fans of teams in smaller markets.

 

What a surprise, a fan of a team with dump trucks of money wants his team to have an advantage because of that money.

 

So no, I don't particularly like the idea of the leafs saying "Hey Clayton Keller, get out of loser Arizona and come to the leafs. We will pay you 10 million dollars a year"

 

And watching that team crumble.

 

Nope.

The top salaried team in MLB is paying its roster like 5 times what the bottom team pays. A remotely even playing field is non existent.

 

No Cap - "May the richest run team win"
Hard Cap - "May the smartest run team win"

 

 

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8 minutes ago, J0e Th0rnton said:

Nope.

The top salaried team in MLB is paying its roster like 5 times what the bottom team pays. A remotely even playing field is non existent.

 

 

It's worse than that: literally a gap of 10 times the team salary.

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13 minutes ago, JR Ewing said:

 

It's worse than that: literally a gap of 10 times the team salary.

 Total payroll of 68M is the lowest. 228M the highest. About 3.5X.

Teams ranking 1st, 3rd, 9th, 13th, 14th, 15th, 18th and 22nd in total payroll for the 2018 season made the playoffs. 

The Brewers at 22nd are still in it. As are #1 Boston, #3 Dodgers and #9 Houston.

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3 minutes ago, sweetshot said:

 Total payroll of 68M is the lowest. 228M the highest. About 3.5X.

Teams ranking 1st, 3rd, 9th, 13th, 14th, 15th, 18th and 22nd in total payroll for the 2018 season made the playoffs. 

The Brewers at 22nd are still in it. As are #1 Boston, #3 Dodgers and #9 Houston.

 

Thank you for the correction. The source I looked at this morning was obviously incorrect on the Marlins payroll.   :)

 

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